85 YEARS AGO, SLOBODAN MILOŠEVIĆ WAS BORN

BELGRADE, AUGUST 20 /SRNA/ - Slobodan Milošević, the long-serving president of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was born on this day in 1941.

A lawyer by training, he rose to the very top of the political elite of Yugoslavia in the 1980s after a long career in the business sector.

He initiated changes to the constitutional status of the autonomous provinces within Serbia.

He was a central figure in Serbian politics during the 1990s.

The beginning of Milošević’s long political career is associated with the speech he delivered at Gazimestan on June 28, 1989, at a ceremony marking the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, which was attended by around one million people.

The breakup of the SFRY soon followed, beginning with the brief war in Slovenia, followed by two devastating wars in Croatia and BiH, and finally the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

He led a delegation comprising three representatives each from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska at the peace negotiations in Dayton in November 1995.

At the time, he signed the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, on behalf of the delegation. It was subsequently signed in Paris a month later.

In May 1999, during the NATO aggression, the Hague Tribunal indicted Milošević for crimes committed during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija, and two years later also indicted him for crimes in Croatia. At the end of 2001, he was additionally charged with alleged genocide against Muslims and Croats in BiH.

Milošević's political rule came to an end in 2000 with the victory of Vojislav Koštunica, the candidate of the united Democratic Opposition of Serbia /DOS/, in the election for president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

He died of a heart attack on March 11, 2006, while in detention at the Hague Tribunal.